Councilmembers appointed Rhonda Lewis and approved Zahilay’s Sound Transit Board appointments.
On Tuesday, the King County Council unanimously selected Rhonda Lewis for an interim appointment to District 2, a seat vacated by Girmay Zahilay winning election as King County Executive last month. Lewis served as Zahilay’s chief of staff when he was a councilmember and was one of the three nominees that the newly installed executive put forward for consideration.
Lewis’s appointment marks the first time a Black woman has served on the council for Washington’s largest county, and it also connotes the first time the county council has been majority women.
Zahilay stressed Lewis’s breadth of experience, which included a stint as the county’s chief of operations under Dow Constantine and as the City of Tukwila’s city administrator. He also argued elevating his chief of staff would prevent a lapse in constituent services.
“I am filled with gratitude and excitement as Rhonda Lewis becomes a member of the King County Council. She makes history today as the first Black woman to ever serve on the Council, but the true victory here is that she will bring a career of deep experience in county operations and service delivery to represent District 2 residents over the next year,” Zahilay said in a statement. “District 2 is in incredibly capable hands, and I have full confidence that Rhonda and her team will ensure no gap in constituent services between now and when the next permanent Councilmember takes office in November 2026.”
The move did face a smattering of criticism that Zahilay should recuse himself from selecting his successor, but that criticism was largely ignored in council deliberations. The public consensus among councilmembers was that Zahilay had selected three great nominees. The other two nominees were Skyway community leader Cherryl Jackson-Williams and nonprofit leader Nimco Bulale, who ran for the state house in the 37th Legislative District in 2022 and finished third. All three had pledged not to file to run for the seat next fall.
In 2009, when Dow Constantine won his term as King County Executive, he did not put forward a list of finalists for the seat he vacated on the county council. Instead, the council held an open process in which they received 11 applications and ultimately selected former Seattle Councilmember Jan Drago, who pledged to serve as a caretaker rather than run for reelection.
“I am honored to have been selected by the King County Council to join them over the next year and finish out Executive Zahilay’s term representing District 2,” newly appointed King County Councilmember Lewis said in a statement. “We have many challenges and opportunities over the next year as the King County Council works to address important issues that District 2 residents care about, like affordability and housing and homelessness. I look forward to partnering with my new colleagues and Executive Zahilay to meet these problems head on and do everything we can for District 2 and everyone else across the region.”
Meanwhile, the race is already heating up when it comes to who will fill the permanent seat next year, with State Senator Rebecca Saldaña jumping in early this week and Port Commissioner Toshiko Grace Hasegawa announcing she’s “strongly considering” a run.
Sound Transit slate coasts through
Councilmembers also unanimously approved Zahilay’s slate of appointments to the Sound Transit Board of Directors. Board Members serve four-year terms, which are staggered in two-year intervals. That means not all board seats were up this year.
Most of the vacancies happened organically by former boardmembers losing their elected offices, which makes them ineligible for the board by state law. The one exception was Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus, who Zahilay opted not to reappoint. The list of new or reaffirmed Sound Transit board appointees are as follows:
- Girmay Zahilay, King County Executive
- Katie Wilson, Mayor-elect of Seattle
- Steffanie Fain, King County Councilmember (District 5)
- Pete von Reichbauer, King County Councilmember (District 7)
- Teresa Mosqueda, King County Councilmember (District 8)
- Angela Birney, Mayor of Redmond
- Thomas McLeod, Mayor of Tukwila
Pete von Reichbauer and Angela Birney were reappointments. Zahilay already served on the Sound Transit Board (after a 2024 appointment by Constantine), but he will have considerably more power as an Executive, given the power to appoint King County’s delegation, which accounts for 10 of the 18 seats on the board, a majority to make decisions around tens of billions of dollars in transit investments.
In the coming year, the Sound Transit Board is poised to consider major revisions to its financial plan and project delivery schedule due to escalating costs that have put the agency’s cumulative budget gap through 2046 at $30 billion or more. It’s set to be a particularly influential year on the board.
“The future of our region relies on safe and reliable mass transportation, and it is more important than ever that Sound Transit’s Board of Directors collaborate with staff and community partners to fulfill our promises to taxpayers on time and within budget,” Zahilay said in a statement. “We are entering a monumental phase for Sound Transit as the Federal Way Link Extension opens this weekend, the Eastside Link Extension nears completion in 2026, and future extensions reach important planning phases. […] I am confident that this slate of Sound Transit Board nominees will serve our transit system well in the short- and long-term as they advocate for their constituencies and look to the future of regional transportation.”
Mosqueda has increasingly been getting involved in Sound Transit issues as she lobbied for a seat on the board, and Seattle Mayor-Elect Wilson also brings a transit background as co-founder and long-time head of the Transit Riders Union, an advocacy group pushing for transit improvements and more equitable fare policy. Wilson and Zahilay have pledged to work together closely in their new executive roles.
“I’ve spent years advocating for the fast, frequent, reliable, and affordable mass transit system that Seattle and our entire region deserve. I’m excited to get to work and help make that happen as a member of the Sound Transit board,” Wilson said.
The only nominee who faced questioning by the council was Tukwila Mayor Tom McLeod. Pressed to weigh in on project prioritization, McLeod hinted at interest in delaying or scaling back projects in Seattle in an apparent nod to prioritizing the light rail “spine” to Tacoma and Everett, which has been a priority for many board members, particularly those from Pierce and Snohomish Counties.
The King County Council is considering the latest slate of Sound Transit board appointments, with Tukwila Mayor Tom McLeod is up now: "Everything needs to be on the table for board consideration; ultimately, choices in Ballard and West Seattle will ripple across the entire financial plan," he says.
— Ryan Packer (@typewriteralley.bsky.social) December 9, 2025 at 2:42 PM
McLeod has also been a vocal advocate for the completion of a 1 Line infill station near Boeing Access Road, close to Allentown. Included in plans since the line’s inception and promised to voters in 2016, the project was deferred and the costs have ballooned to nearly $500 million, which is a remarkably high price tag for one above-ground station.
Similarly, von Reichbauer’s statement continued to make it clear projects outside Seattle would take priority for him: “I look forward to advocating for the completion of this transportation spine.” A Federal Way resident, von Reichbauer is the longest serving Sound Transit board member.
Fain, who just won election to King County Council in District 5, was a bit more circumspect in her prepared comments.
“As Chair of the Council’s Transit, Economy, and Environment Committee, as well as the Regional Transit Committee, I’m committed to prioritizing safety, ensuring the long-term financial sustainability of Sound Transit, and meeting the growing needs of our transit-dependent communities in South King County,” Fain said. “I look forward to working collaboratively to deliver a cohesive system that supports our residents, our workforce, and our local economy.”
Among the three seats that didn’t face reappointment this year was Seattle Councilmember Dan Strauss, Renton Councilmember Ed Prince, and King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci, who chairs the System Expansion Committee and unsuccessfully ran against Zahilay for the Executive seat.
Doug Trumm is publisher of The Urbanist. An Urbanist writer since 2015, he dreams of pedestrian streets, bus lanes, and a mass-timber building spree to end our housing crisis. He graduated from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington in 2019. He lives in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood and loves to explore the city by foot and by bike.